About a year ago, at a Sephora in New York City’s Meatpacking District, I found a meagre selection of TikTok skinfluencer Hyram Yarbro’s skin care line, Selfless by Hyram, stashed at the back of the retailer. Similarly, Addison Rae’s Item Beauty, which entered the retailer several months earlier, wasn’t as prominently displayed as one would expect for someone with nearly 90 million TikTok followers.By the end of 2022, Yarbro’s skin care disappeared from Sephora’s stores and website almost as quickly as it the year before. Item Beauty is nowhere to be found at the LVMH-owned retailer either, although products are still available at sephora.com (and deeply discounted).Sephora, which has emerged as a voracious incubator for lines founded by anyone with a sizable internet following parted ways with two of the biggest influencers to come out of TikTok. It would seem they went all in on the wrong bet.This isn’t just a Sephora problem — the challenges facing Rae and Yarbro’s beauty labels are a symptom of the larger disillusionment the public has with these sorts of brands. Ulta Beauty, Target, Walmart and more have all invested in celebrity and influencer lines in hopes of building the next Fenty Beauty or Rare Beauty.Read the full story by Rachel Strugatz on BoF. [Link in bio]✍️ 📷
